Flower Girl
by AliasStars
Summary: When they have nothing left, Rin sells flowers in freezing New York City, and Len hates her for it.


**Flower Girl **

* * *

Len can't remember how long ago he and Rin lost everything they had.

Len worked at the Dry Cleaner near their apartment, a drafty little place where the cold air freezes his feet down to the bone. At least he got a job indoors, because Rin has it so much worse.

Rin found a job with a florist. Who sells flowers in the winter, Len wonders. She stands outside in freezing New York with pots of dirt and wilting daisies because no one else will take the job. She comes down with colds, the flu, drags herself to the stand every single day because she has to. He's threatened her. He's tied her down to the bed and fought with her, tried to hold her down so she won't leave. He's sat down beside the bed and cried and begged her not to go, and she's cried, and in the end she leaves anyway.

And they both come back, and Rin's fingers are bitterly cold. Len must practically submerge them into a burning water bath because she can't do it herself. Shaking, she sits beside him and her cold cheeks and feet and hands curl into him. He's tired of hearing Rin cry. He's tired of seeing her sick. He can't kiss her and tell her it'll be okay, because her mouth is like ice, and he might hurt her. God, she's so cold that when he taps her hand, it sounds hollow.

And the next day, the temperature drops to the negative 30s.

He begs. He pleads. He cries even more, screaming at her not to go. It's not worth it. It's not worth it.

Please don't go-

_I have to _

Please don't go-

_I need to_

Please don't go-

_I love you_

I love you-

Little things they say, little words that flit with the caress of their breaths as Rin kisses his mouth, her cold lips brushing against his. Can't she see? Can't she see that she's killing him? Can't she see that he's breaking apart for her? Len knots his scarf, pulls on his weathered coat, and insists that he's going to go with her.

Rin loses him in the crowd. He goes to the flower stand, and it's empty.

It's so cold that nobody wants to be on the streets. Who wants flowers, he thinks savagely, in a moment of hatred and anger. Who wants her wilting flowers in this weather. The words and hate bubble through his throat as choked tears and he shudders. What is he saying? What a petty, childish fool he is.

Somehow, that night, he knows Rin isn't coming back. He knows when he walks into the drafty apartment that he's lost her to not the crowd, but the cold.

He hopes, as he runs through the streets, that she froze with her flowers, so at least they could feel belittled by her beauty. He knows, even when he comes upon the stand, that she will be there, pale skin, rosy cheeks, eyelashes swayed only by the wind. He knows when his fingers brush her porcelain cheeks- No longer just an adjective.

Little Flower Girl.

She's leaning against the cart, huddled from the cold, the temperatures dropping so low that Len's bones feel the cold. He can finally kiss her mouth, because it will no longer hurt her. He can finally hold her hand, because she will no longer feel it. He can fight with her, and she will no longer fight back- She won't run out into the cold like this. Len takes his coat off and wraps it around both of them. He takes his scarf off and enfolds her in it. He can fight the cold. He can fight Rin's war with her.

So he kisses her. Long, sweet, freezing. He can feel the smallest, last breath of life pass from her mouth. He sees the tips of her lips tilt upwards just the tiniest bit. Rin's eyes sparkle for him, a warmth Len feels silly for having missed. He takes the flower of love, a red rose, from Rin's stiff fingers and tucks it behind a frozen lock of golden hair.

Len ducks beneath the cover of the flower cart with Rin and holds her, sighing into her hair. What was Rin thinking of, he wonders. Was she imagining a Christmas dinner to please the gods? Was she playing with the kids on the skating rink, or wearing her white wedding dress when she floated down the aisle? He laughs when he realizes he's dreaming Rin's dreams.

It's cold, he thinks.

But the cold will pass. The sun will rise and one day, perhaps, Rin will wake him up and they will walk down the street bathed with sunshine. Maybe they'll- He smiles, shaking his head. He's thinking too far ahead. For now, he wants to hold Rin until the morning. Tomorrow was always kinder.

So he will sit with her until morning.

* * *

It is, of course, based the slightest bit off of Little Match Girl- The concept is around the same. I'd like to think that I would have bought a matchstick from her... Or a flower from Rin.

Question: Does Len freeze to death with Rin? I know some of you might ask me that, so I'll tell you that I don't know. For those of you that didn't know Rin even froze to death, I'm going to assume you're optimists. Or my writing was so half-baked that you didn't know where it was even going. Perhaps he froze with her. Perhaps he got up and left. Perhaps- I don't know.

Honestly, I'd like to think they lived happily ever after.

Review if you wish...


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